Nearly 100 past and present employees at Mindseye developer Build a Rocket Boy have signed an open letter against the studio for its “longstanding disrespect and mistreatment” of staff.
Published on Friday by the IWGB Game Workers, this letter directly calls out several issues employees claim to have faced from management, including founder Leslie Benzies.
After the poorly received launch of Mindseye, Build a Rocket Boy laid off what the union says was 250-300 people because of their refusal to “listen to your workforce’s years of experience, resulting in one of the worst video game launches this decade.”
The letter says that there was a “lack of transparency and communication”. The employees believe that “information has been sparse and vague, with you (Benzies) often making radical changes to the way we worked with little or no input from those affected.”
The letter also mentions the studio implementing a mandatory eight hours of overtime per week for every employee in the four months leading up to the game’s launch. Time Off In Lieu was given to the staff at seven hours per every eight worked, but, they say that many employees have yet to be able to use any of the time off because of “continued requests for extra “high-priority” work, even after launch.”
Regarding layoffs, the letter calls what has happened a “disastrous handling”. It’s alleged that employees were given wrong information, including being grouped with the wrong internal teams, and given wrong notice periods, which may have seen a number of employees wrongfully dismissed.
The employees, both current and former, are demanding a public apology for the mistreatment as well as “proper compensation” for those who were let go. They are also asking for a meaningful and documented effort to improve conditions within the company that includes acknowledgement of the IWGB as a trade union, a commitment to using external partners for future redundancies, and the option for remaining employees on redundancy notice to either work the rest of their time or take Payment in Lieu of Notice.
The letter closes with calling out Benzies and co-CEO Mark Gerhard, saying, “you often refer to your employees as ‘family’. But we ask you to consider; is this really how you treat your own?”
Insider Gaming has reached out to Build a Rocket Boy for comment on the letter. Should a response be received, it will be added to this story.
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Mike has been covering the gaming industry since 2012, and has reported on some of the largest events in the industry while also working as an investigative reporter. Outside of…
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